District ends contracts with embattled firm
Move signals win for activists who called on board to distance itself from construction company
Amid ongoing investigations into the Alum Rock school district, the board has ended key contracts with a controversial construction management firm that’s long been under scrutiny.
On Tuesday, the board terminated its program management contracts with Del Terra Real Estate — which had been hired several years ago to oversee a series of bond-funded construction projects. However, the board kept intact the firm’s construction management contracts.
While the company still will work with the district, cutting them out of the management program contracts eliminates the concern a growing number of parents, community groups and local officials had expressed that those contracts were a conflict of interest and essentially allowed the Southern-based company to oversee itself.
The move signals a significant win for community activists, who have long been pressuring board members — several of whom have received
campaign contributions from Del Terra — to separate themselves from the company, arguing it has mismanaged funds and failed to work in students’ best interests.
After an outpouring of support from parents and students, the board also decided to keep Superintendent Hilaria Bauer in her post. Under intense public scrutiny, several board members had blamed Bauer for the district’s troubles and threatened to fire her, a move frustrated families dismissed as a political maneuver.
San Jose Mayor Sam Liccardo had agreed, penning a letter to the board warning that “any action to remove Dr. Bauer could only be interpreted as retribution and further deepen the rift between the board and the community.”
The decision to keep Bauer was welcome news for many of the families who attended Tuesday night’s board meeting. But they are still pushing for official action against Del Terra and possibly the district’s board.
Late last week, district parents Flor DeLeon Jacobo and Jeff Markham sent a letter to Santa Clara County District Attorney Jeff Rosen on behalf of families in the school district asking his office to look into Alum Rock’s relationship with Del Terra while outlining a series of complaints. The pair also submitted a complaint to the state’s Fair Political Practices Commission.
The new complaints come just days after Assemblyman Ash Kalra and state Senator Jim Beall called for a state audit of the board of trustees.
“We’re hoping one of the two will pick it up,” Markham said. “I think it’s systemic. I think you have to understand how these things went down.”
Echoing a state audit released last year, the letter with a list of complaints raises questions about fraud, conflicts of interest and mismanagement of funds in the low-income district, which serves mostly minority children.
The letter alleges that the district, at the board’s behest, paid Del Terra millions of dollars over several years and received little in return. Parents have also voiced concern that the board awarded projects to Del Terra that should have gone to other firms and green lit questionable payments to the company.
A spokesman for the district attorney’s office said the office had received the letter of complaints and was reviewing it. The district attorney’s office has been looking into Alum Rock for more than a year, but declined to discuss the status of its investigation.
Del Terra did not immediately return a request for comment.
“Nothing new is presented in that allegation… It’s rehashing the same politics that have been stated since day one,” said board president Esau Herrera, who voted against terminating the contracts. “I for one would rather focus on the education of our kids.”
Markham remains skeptical of the board’s leadership but said Tuesday’s decisions were a step in the right direction.
“There’s no victory laps,” Markham said, “but we felt like the community’s voice was heard.”